Washington, 16 May (Argus) — The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today it is delaying the 20 May implementation of hazardous air pollutant standards for industrial boilers and solid waste incinerators.
The US Sugar Corporation and a coalition of industry groups have submitted petitions for review of the standards, which require maximum available control technologies (MACT) for boilers. The federal Administrative Procedure Act allows the EPA to delay the effective date of the rule “until the proceedings for judicial review of these rules are complete or the EPA completes its reconsideration of the rules, whichever is earlier,” the agency said in a public notice.
EPA said it will accept additional information from the public until July 15. The agency said it plans to issue a notice of proposed reconsideration that will identify specific issues raised in the petitions, but it did not say when.
The MACT rules would affect 13,800 boilers used by large industrial emitters. It covers emissions of mercury, other metals and organic air toxics, including polycyclic organic matter and dioxins. EPA released the final standards in March to comply with a court order denying an 18-month extension. At the same time, the EPA said it would reconsider the rules.
The EPA said it would look at including new subcategories under the MACT; establishing a fuel specification for boilers fired by gases other than natural gas; using generally available control technology standards (GACT) for boilers that use biomass; revising carbon monoxide monitoring and dioxin emissions testing requirements; and other changes.
In a petition sent to the EPA on 9 May, the National Association of Manufacturers, the US Chamber of Commerce and nine trade groups concurred with the issues identified by the EPA and added a few more.
The industry groups said they were most concerned about dioxin and furan standards, calling them “unlawful and unachievable” because the numbers are close to detection limits.
“EPA has set these standards without being able to provide industry with an understanding of how to prevent or control dioxin/furan emissions from industrial boilers and process heaters, and has not assigned any costs for meeting these standards,” the petition said. “EPA should follow the approach taken in the recently proposed Utility Boiler MACT and set work practice standards instead of numerical emission limits for dioxin/furan.”
The petition also requested the EPA to adjust H2S specifications for boilers that burn gases other than natural gas, make carbon monoxide limits more flexible, reconsider oxygen monitoring requirements that were not part of the originally proposed rule and reconsider emissions limits for biomass-fired boilers.
“Prescribing overly stringent [hazardous air pollutant] emissions limitations on biomass boilers will create a significant barrier to the continued expanded use of biomass fuels,” the petition said.
US Sugar spokeswoman Judy Sanchez said her company believes the EPA relied on technically insufficient data to set MACT floors.
“Our filing was primarily protective, to preserve our rights to participate fully in the reconsideration the EPA is about to undertake and to make sure we are protecting our rights to challenge them legally,” Sanchez said.
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